Deacon Ray Defendorf

Description

Patty and I spent the weekend at Stella Maris Retreat Center in Skaneateles, New York. Each year at this time, the St. Stephen's Deacon Association of the Diocese of Rochester offers a retreat for deacons and wives. Over the past 26 years, we've attended most of these retreats and have found them both spiritually enriching and a good opportunity to establish and re-establish relationships with other couples and individuals who live with the special opportunities and confines of the diaconate. This year's retreat will be especially remembered, not so much for what we got out of it - as for what I forgot to BRING to it - my CPAP machine. A CPAP machine helps people like myself with sleep apnea to get a good nights sleep. People who have sleep apnea stop breathing during the night because the opening to their windpipe becomes obstructed by soft tissue in the rear of their mouths. When breathing ceases, the brain momentarily wakes you up and you gasp for air. Because this happens throughout the night, people with apnea do not sleep deeply enough to dream and usually wake up very tired because of low oxygen levels. The CPAP machine which is usually prescribed after a sleep study, blows a measured torrent of air down the throat which keeps the windpipe open. I've used a CPAP for almost 20 years now and, frankly can't sleep without it. Thus the problem. I forgot to pack the machine when we left for the 82 mile trip to Skaneateles. ...

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